You asked about it. You pondered if this day would ever come. You forgot you asked or pondered and went about your business as usual. Now, it’s here — The Razzball Podcast. To make our at-times-indecipherable, at-times-hard-to-stomach voices go down a bit smoother, we have a special contest for anyone who wants to enter. A $50 Amazon gift certificate to the person who does the best rendition of our Razzball theme song. What I suggest you do is go to an online voice recorder and make a recording of yourself singing the song. Lyrics and timing will be taken into consideration. I suggest you write down what you think are the words before going off and trying to sing it yourself. But you’re a big boy (or girl — no offense meant!), you can figure out how to do it. Then post your link in the comments of this post. Here’s one that I made. (I know all the words, but I didn’t want to give anything away so I cut mine short. Yes, my voice really is that bad. You should not cut yours short as I did, unless you think that’s your best effort. Though, I think you can do better.)

@royce!, Ha, that was a creative liberty taken by the band (Symphony of Nine). They also seem to have changed my lyric, “You may pee yourself like your name was Moises” to “You may pay yourself like your making noises”

Long-awaited awesomeness! Can’t wait to listen to this later today. If possible, please let us know if/when the podcast gets an RSS feed so we can subscribe more easily and catch the show every week. Thanks guys!

@ChillmanCometh – I know…it’s one of my lamer qualities as a fantasy ‘expert’. I spent the offseason clearing my head and then just run all the stats come Feb/March. I try to avoid falling love with a player – I just know my values and will grab just about any player who comes at a discount. Inevitably, certain guys keep showing up on my teams and I make an after-the-fact ‘he’s my guy’ assessment. If you go through the Point Shares (https://razzball.com/2012-point-shares-12-team-mlb-espn-roster/), you’ll see plenty of candidates (look at where my rankings differ from ESPN/Yahoo. One of my only biases is I don’t like drafting an SP1/SP2 with a lot of injury risk – so I don’t care where Josh Johnson is on my rankings, not drafting him. And I want to get SPs at a discount, figuring if top SPs are going at ‘retail’, then there will be a lot of mid-range SPs going at bargain rates. For an example, check out our SPs in a 14-team Yahoo-sponsored league: Anibal, Latos, Romero, Hudson, Masterson, Lewis, Norris (we just packaged Norris in a trade for CC). It’s not sexy but should be good in W/K and do okay in ERA/WHIP.

Wow I actually listened to all of that! You must have done something right. I really like Grey’s board this year…it just seems that after last year’s pitchingpalooza, its an even better time to go hitter heavy early in most formats. So far after a number of drafts it seems like a lot of usual suspects are ending up on my teams:

We just pulled the draft order for my 14 team 3 keeper league with OPS. I got pick #2…NICE! My keepers are Miggy, Justin Upton and Greinke. Top 2 available in the draft are Pujols and Votto. I know it is not an ideal pairing, but I have to go with whichever one is left for me at #2, right? Next 2 best are Kemp and Tulo.

@Grey @Rudy Awesome guys! Finally can put voices to the ‘stache and the ‘fro! Shout out to Nick for the Expos reference! The city of Montreal is trying to find a way to honour Gary Carter. Can’t think of a better way than bringing back the ‘Spos! Thanks guys!

Thoughts on my team? This was an RCL draft and the pitching just kept hanging around so my staff is pretty strong, offense could use a boost. If I trade Felix for a stud bat is my rotation still strong enough?

Would have been nice to snag an elite first baseman and front-line starter, but my league-mates were rabid for that shit. Some of the decent names floating around on the waiver wire include Colby Rasmus, Lorenzo Cain, Scott Baker, and Tim Stauffer, if you would advise any moves. Planning on dropping Doumit once Jesus gets C eligibility.

@Waldo Iscariot, Thanks! You’re really low on SPs. You don’t need Holds on your bench. Lose Bastardo for Stauffer. As long as you can stream solidly with SPs, your team should be competitive, the hitting is good…

@Grey Speaking of Napoli, in a 16 team deep keeper I have him as my catcher (had him before his mom’s nipples were famous!) It took a lot of patience to set him and forget him! Anywho, was thinking of moving him to UTIL and drafting a punter like Soto to take over at catcher. Do you think Napoli can give full value to the UTIL spot given the dearth of hitting left to draft?

Nice job on the podcast… tell career conscious announcer boy that he should be more concerned about not getting a PODCASTING job by doing BS non-cursing announcing gigs. Talk about not know which way the wind is blowing… sheesh.

Don’t change the theme song. Epic.

I will do my part to get 12 after 20 to catch on. So first off; what does it mean? 12th round or better value after the 20 round I am guessing?

Sweet job on the Podcast! It was a great soundtrack to digging ditches today.
It made me sad faced emoticon that I drafted Hosmer but in my defense I’m in a 14 team league and was able to draft Longoria, McCutchen, and Uggla. So, minor punt but mayhaps no harm done.

@Grey,
Ha! That was a big ol’ Meh of an a’ight but I’ll take it. I’ve already dropped Bourjos (Auto pick pee break mistake) for Duda and am looking to trade Stubbs and Sale for Gordon and Addison Reed. Somehow I already know you don’t like that one…Oh yeah, because I listened to your Podcast!

Who would you target at pick #13 in a 14 team league?? SP tend to go high in my league because CG are a stat. Halladay, Verlander, Shields, and C lee might be off the board by the time it gets to me. So there will be value, just don’t know what kind. Votto, A Gonz, J Upt, Ells, Han Ram should all be there.

@Grey/Rudy/Nick, great work pulling together the podcast!! Enjoyed listening to it very much. Also putting the voices to the faces…

Rudy being the biggest vocal surprise (vs. his avatar), sounding a bit of a cross between someone who’s lived in both Jersey and Canada. ;) Grey, with some perfect timing (just like in your writing), and an Eddie Haskle-esque lilt to the voice. Nice! Also unexpected, as I was imagining a voice ranging anything from Tom Selleck to Randall Texx Cobb’s character from Raising Arizona to go with that stache! And you really just sound like one of my good friends named Rick. er…. Rick, is that you?? Rick?

Nick, of course, oozes over the airways like a smooth jazz radio deejee a la Tim Meadows’ “Quiet Storm”. Sweet… :)

Should I trade away Alonso & Gordon in a 2-for-1 to get the other guy’s choice of Giancarlo ($24); The Dread Pirate ($28); or Bruce ($24)? The other guy will probably just barely agree to Bruce given the value disparities this year on his projections, if at all, but would all 3 players be a clear green light for the trade?

If so, who from Hart, Mayberry and Hudson should come off the bubble into my top 8 keepers (in rank order)? THANKS!

Nice podcast – I feel like there should be a segment within it called “The Moustache Ride” for some reason

Thoughts on this team? 12 team H2H standard cats – On the hitting side of things I’m doing pretty well – on the pitching side of things I need some upside to pan out.

What was frustrating was that I seemed to get sniped out of a whole pitching tier with a pitching run of Darvish, Bumgarner, CJ Wilson, Wainwright, and Hudson causing me to take Hosmer and then wait it out for Gio after that. Other than that things broke fairly well.

@blaster, Thanks! Sean-Rod seems a bit like wishful thinking, but that’s a small quibble. The team looks solid on the hitting side. The pitching could be a bit of a mess but I don’t mind that as much in H2H…

Hey Grey,
Just did my 10 teak Keeper OBP/QS 5X5 league. Can you rate my draft? I went a little earlier on closers than I thought but that’s what happens when half of your top 50 are in the back of the draft with keepers. I was really surprised Wright fell to me in this league but all seemed to not like him after last year. Funny when someone took Adam Dunn in round 12. I have never drafted a team with 4 bench players but figured between Cozart/Aybar and Kendrick/Espinosa, one or two would not work out or could be traded.

@Mr2Bits, Team looks solid… You went a bit too heavy/early on closers, agreed. Bourjos, Aybar, Wright, Youk, Hunter, Krispie, Cozart, Kendrick… You may not get over 24 homers from anyone there, definitely not from the majority of them. I.e., it’s a bit power light. I’ve seen better offenses in 10 team leagues, but it’s manageable. You’re gonna need to work for some power.

@Grey, Agree. No joke, Wright was the top ranked player from your top 300, after that it was pitchers and Arod. I was lucky to snag Pence in the 2nd round when my pick came around as I was 9th after keepers set in.

I am glad to hear my power is the issue as I was concerned about pitching for awhile. I can correct the power as Lind/Hill/Rios etc were not even drafted.

@Grey, Correct. He would be fighting for playing time at this point. I really took Bourjos accidentally and it threw my whole team off as I usually only carry 2 bench players max. With that said, I wasn’t expecting Wright to fall as far as he did either so I took a 3b player I didn’t really need and already had 1st locked up with Youk/Berkman.

I think I should probably lose Cozart at this point or I will struggle in this H2h league to win K’s and QS. Only problem is this is really all whose left. Is a flyer worth losing for one of these duds?

@Mr2Bits, Disregards as I just read your rundown and losing Cozart doesn’t look like a good idea anymore. Ill sit tight and wait for duds/injuries to pan out and see where I’m at with the trade market. Look like most teams in my league are in the same position with their pitchers and being fairly shallow with starters. Is it just me or have all the good starting pitchers vanished? When you start seeing Danks and Lilly going in rounds 12, shiz has really hit the fan.

@Grey, Yeah the host said it twice, asking for your “epic fails”… I’m on a pedantic quest to eradicate the term outside of 15 year old boys. It’s basically me against the Huffington Post, so I’m sure I’ll prevail.

On a serious note I really enjoyed the podcast and plan to tune in every week.

hey man if K-Rod does not get the job done in the 8th then Axford will not be what he can be – so why does K-Rod the setup man get only 18 holds – it wasn’t the C- you got in Math in 8th grade that had something to do with this Grey

@Grey, I seen 23 saves last year for him and 17 holds last year – that number adds up to 40 combo – he is new breed of 8th inning setup men – one that could close for another club and there should be no questions when in comes in the 8th inning that he can get the job done – since I do own the brewers 9th inning dude – I am going to take theri 8th inning dude and I hope he gets 25 holds for me

Oh my goodness. the roundtable video on Hanley is a goldmine of unintentional comedy. AJ Mass is mumbling something to Karabell about how Hanley can’t steal alot of bases because bonifacio will be on base all the time ahead of him and Cockroft is looking like he wants lunch. My computer froze with the Croft in a creepy gaze at Bell while she tells us that Hanley had shoulder surgery last year. Thanks. Another thing that is very clear – Mass and Cockroft haven’t changed their ESPN mug shots in years.

Nice pod, knew it would be fun when the rock raines and swiggy lines came out

I have a keeper / strategy questions. For my last keeper, I am deciding between Leake and Tabata (OF is CF, LF, RF). I have Emilio that can also play LF, but is currently my SS/3B with Han Ram. I plan on trying to draft as many of the following: Cozart, Dee Gordon, Moustakes, Yonder. I also plan on trying to draft young SP, like the S Miller, H Alvarez, Peacock, Pomeranz’s of the world.

Do I keep Tabata or Leake?

Depending on who I keep, does this change my draft approach..i.e..keep Tabata, go heavy on SP, or keep Leake, go heavy on hitters…?

I really enjoyed the podcast. I hope that you guys do more during the season. Having no idea where any of the characters on this site are originally from having never heard your accents: here are my guesses.
Grey: East coast. Easy. Jersey or Maryland. Has to be one of those
Rudy: Difficult to tell. My guess is the Ohio River valley to Oklahoma… shot in the dark there.
Nick- Long o’s. Much like the way I speak being a MIL area resident (although far less sexy). My guess is MN, MI, or IL.

I really want to make a version of the song, but after last night when the baby was crying and I was drafting for Steve and my wife posted on facebook, “Hush, baby Faith…No crying during Daddy’s fantasy baseball draft”, I’m thinking I need to reconsider my priorities…but just to be safe, can someone send me the lyrics?

@Grey, Oh, no worries. Just thought he had a pretty solid radio voice – or phone sex operator voice, whichever you prefer. Well done again on the podcast. It was actually listenable (is that a word?), which I’ve never really found those to be.

@royce!, Haha. As a lifelong Cubs fan, I don’t see how Gregg could ever have a closer’s job again. And Lindstrom has been dealing with arm and back problems this spring and is still just throwing off of flat ground. So I have no clue. I don’t get paid to be a “real” manager, though…

@Jarred, I’m assuming that CJ Wilson and not Brian and in that case the pitching is very strong as is the hitting, but the hitting is lacking a bit of speed, which isn’t a terrible thing in H2H. Overall solid team.

Good to finally put a voice to the ‘stache! Great work by yourself and Rudy. Very entertaining stuff! Can’t wait for next week!

I created a Google doc that compares your entire rankings to Yahoo’s. Interesting stuff. One thing that stuck out to me is, despite your preference to punt catchers, you still rank 2 of the top C McCann and Wieters 2-3 rounds higher than Y! Just found that interesting. Also the difference in ranking of the top tier of closers shows your love for SAGNOF. There’s a few other things that stick out but I’ll just let you and everybody else view for your pleasure…

@Grey and Rudy: Phenomenal stuff. The song, the content, everything. And after a year or two of reading articles/comments where you guys knock your voices, I was surprised. For some reason I was expecting to hear a couple Pee-wee Hermans discussing fantasy baseball, but ya’ll sounded good. I think Nick takes the cake though. Felt like I was listening to a Canadian John Sterling. Without the yelling.

@Grey, I have Podtrapper on my EVO, I just put in RSS feeds and then I can download podcasts directly to my phone. I use it and Stitcher, which streams podcasts instead of downloading, I think a podcast has to be submitted for Stitcher though.

I would agree with the general sentiment: epic intro song, nice to have the dulcet tones of Nick moderating you barnyard animals, and the usual level of fantasy goodness we have come to expect from ones Mr. Grey and Mr. Gamble.

However, you did “shatter my world” a bit in revealing that the little man behind the Rudy Gamble curtain is, indeed, as white as sheep’s wool. Could this be considered the Internet equivalent of wearing blackface? That didn’t work out too well on The Challenge (Ex’s).

Note to John Q. Public: if you have to ask yourself “Is this racist?”, then yes, it probably is.